34 J.-A. PEMBERTON
The question of German honour was also raised in a private inter-
view which Hitler conducted with Toynbee at the Chancery in the
Wilhelmstrasse on the day before Toynbee’s lecture at the academy.^108
During the meeting, which lasted one and three-quarter hours and
which was conducted in German, Hitler told Toynbee that Germany’s
‘honour could only be restored by a symbolic act of a concrete kind’ and
this meant that ‘[s]he must have her colonies back’.^109 If Britain gave
Germany back her colonies, Hitler suggested speaking to Toynbee as if
the latter were Britannia herself, then Germany would be Great Britain’s
‘friend against Japan’; he further suggested that Germany would be a
more useful friend to Great Britain in terms of British interests in the
Asia-Pacific than its current friend against Japan, namely, Russia. If there
were any ‘trouble’ with Japan, Hitler declared, he would provide Britain
with ‘six divisions and some warships at Singapore’.^110
britisH reActions to toynbee’s berlin visit
Not surprisingly, Toynbee’s lecture at the Nazi law academy, which was
delivered in English but of which copies in German had been circu-
lated in advance by the German Foreign Ministry, was very well received
by his Berlin audience. A British diplomat stationed in Berlin informed
Toynbee that it ‘was an eager topic of discussion everywhere’.^111 By con-
trast, some of Toynbee’s colleagues at home were greatly dismayed by
this attempt at conciliating Anglo-German relations. Webster was a friend
her own in Africa.’ Crozier, ‘Chatham House and Appeasement,’ 228. McNeill points out
that what Toynbee had in view was ‘to return former German colonies to a German admin-
istration, subject, however, to the terms of a “deed of trust” and “international inspec-
tion.” He went on to propose internationalization of administrative personnel for such
technical services as communications and health throughout tropical Africa “on the model
of the China Maritime Customs.”’ McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life, 171.
(^108) McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life, 172, and Crozier, ‘Chatham House and
Appeasement,’ 229. For the location and other details concerning Toynbee’s interview
with Hitler, see Toynbee, Acquaintances, 279.
(^109) Crozier, ‘Chatham House and Appeasement,’ 230. On the length of the meeting see
McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life, 317.
(^110) Toynbee, Acquaintances, 279. See also Crozier, ‘Chatham House and Appeasement,’
229–30.
(^111) Tracy Philipps, 1936, quoted in McNeill, Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life, 171. See also
Toynbee, Acquaintances, 286.